In the case of Oakland, where I live, I get the sense that one of the challenges is that there's no real pressure on the city government to improve things. While it is true that services such as the police are underfunded, I think this is also used as a pretext to enable unresponsive, bureaucratic behavior on the part of the legal and law enforcement systems. Perhaps crowdfunding will provide a stimulus for additional responsiveness once government agencies see the possibility of genuine competition on some level.